How many times have you tried talking to someone for them to apparently not hear you at all? And when they do acknowledge your attempt at communication, all you are greeted with is a look of annoyance that you have disturbed their peace.

NBA General Managers must be familiar with both sides of this ‘conversation’ given the amount of talk, especially in the off season, that takes place regarding the switching of player personnel.

There are those that love to talk, those who love to listen and those who do a little bit of both.

According to Yahoo Sports one man who has been doing a lot of listening this week is the Detroit Piston’s GM, Joe Dumars, with the Boston Celtics at the other end doing all of the talking.

The story is being told that neither franchise’s GM was involved in discussions, but that initial talks had taken place between lower level executives.

The Celtics were looking to trade Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen for Tayshaun Prince, Rip Hamilton and Rodney Stuckey.

To say that these team’s ‘discussed’ a trade appears to be slightly hyperbolic given the simplicity of Detroit’s response: no.

The trade appears to be more wishful thinking than realism on the part of Boston. Such a deal is clearly built around the value of Allen’s $20 million expiring contract which would leave his team big time cap room heading into 2010.

The Piston’s however are more keen to rebound quickly, playing with the salary space that Allen Iverson’s departure has created.

With the desire for cap space eliminated, the trade, talent wise, just doesn’t make sense for Detroit.

Ray Allen is clearly in the autumn of his career, a very good player but for how much longer? In contrast, Rip Hamilton is realtively sprightly with many years of production ahead of him.

The same can be said for Prince who was no doubt desired by the Celtics for his ability to defend the lengthy 3s and 4s that will stand in between Boston and a return to the Finals.

Boston is apparently reluctant to re-sign Rondo to the long term and large contract that he will soon command. Stuckey appears to be the cheaper alternative.

The trade would almost certainly reinvigorate the Celtic’s, but given the fact that it makes next to no sense for Detroit, this simply ain’t gonna happen.

The term combo guard can mean a few things, but normally it describes a player who prefers to score the ball but is too small to play the shooting guard position exclusively.

If ever there was an example of a two guard in a point guard’s body, it is Ben Gordon.

The Chicago Bulls’ player who terrorised the Boston Celtics in round one of this year’s playoffs, seemingly ‘playing horse with god’, is one of the most high profile players available through free agency this summer.

The difficulty lies in how much money a team is willing to commit to a player generously listed at 6-1 who doesn’t like to pass and is a defensive liability: he may score 25 a game but he will likely gift the opposition the same in return.

There is little doubt that Gordon’s offensive capabilities will prove attractive enough for a number of team’s to offer him big time money. It is with some surprise that the Detroit Pistons are being strongly associated with a move for the guard.

Detroit, who have placed the future of their team in the hands of Rodney Stuckey, are far from the perfect fit for Gordon in their current state.

The main problem would come in the form of Rip Hamilton: it is difficult to see how Gordon and Rip would play together which leads to the strong possibility of Hamilton leaving Mo-Town, completing the destruction of the Championship team of just a few years ago.

The fact that Rasheed Wallace looks to be walking, Detroit has some big decisions to make. Is Ben Gordon the player to lead the Piston’s rebuilding?

Last night the Cleveland Cavalier home court war machine kept rolling, despite the efforts of a hungry and determined Detroit Pistons. The game was tied going into the last quarter in a truly low scoring and gritty playoff type atmosphere. LeBron had been relatively quiet all night by his imperious standards and when the Pistons went up in the 4th it looked like Detroit’s veteran leadership might drive them toward a famous and confidence boosting victory.

The eyes of all in the Quickens Loan Arena fell on King James expecting as they have done for the entire season that their MVP would drag his Cavs back into the game and eventually over the winning line. To a certain extent this was the reality. LeBron upped his production in the 4th and started demanding the ball. Yet the real difference maker for the Cavaliers was Anderson Varejao. The Brazilian exhibited his true worth to the team with numerous high energy, hustle plays which kept his team alive. When the Cavs needed them the Brazilian grabbed huge offensive rebounds down the stretch.

The Brazilian took an elbow to the face earlier in the game and such physicality was characteristic of the whole night. These two teams plain do not like each other as illustrated by Delonte West who banged with Rip Hamilton all game long, most notably grabbing Rip in the often court after being stripped and subsequently throwing the Pistons’ shooting guard to the ground. Flagrant.

Guess who got served with his 16th technical, enough to get a one game ban. Rasheed Wallace was back and doing what he does, coming off the bench with A.I. which actually looked pretty nice when The Answer passed the ball. Wallace was hitting threes off the pick and pop, 3 in a row, but the Pistons and particularly Iverson stopped going to Sheed later in the game. It sure is nice to see Wallace getting his argue on. Especially when its about 10 minutes after the call. Entertaining but not too helpful in a tight game, right.

For the penultimate 2 Cavalier possessions in the 4th the Pistons had Rip go one on one with LeBron, and it was not even fair. Dude got blown by and scored on. The final possession, when the game was almost out of reach and Varejao had done his magic, Tayshaun got the assignment instead and made LBJ take the toughest shot possible which he missed. Just does not make sense. In Prince you have a lock down player and in LeBron you are faced with probably the best closer in the game. Put Tayshaun on LBJ!

So the Cavs win, again, on a night when L.A. lose to the Bobcats improving their case for home court in the Finals massively. As for the Pistons, A.I. starting or coming off the bench just does not work. Simple. In fact, it got pretty ugly for a few minutes in his first stint off the B when he was forcing his shot and the team ethos got thrown out. But, they did run Cleveland close, highlighting that Detroit are to be avoided come play off time. They are too dangerous and experienced to meet in the first round.